The present invention relates to data processing by digital computer, and more particularly to ad hoc coordination actions in business processes.
Business applications aid users of the applications performing their activities within an enterprise. For example, a business application may guide a user through steps of a certain business process in a certain order, e.g. hiring a new employee. A business application uses a number of services. For different steps in this process, the business application may then provide the user with one or more services at the user interface, such as filling in and submitting a form to a database (e.g. with the new employee's name, address, and so forth), and ordering items (e.g. a workplace for the new employee).
Typically, a service is implemented as a set of procedures or functions hosted on a computer server connected to computer devices.
Business process models cover the way business is done formally, without considering informal processes, or more work group-oriented work procedures that evolve as best practice of how to actually run the business. Besides dynamic workflows that may be adjustable to ad-hoc constraints or needs at runtime, there exists a level of ad-hoc people-to-people coordination on top of a process that manages the process on a meta level, solve problems, evaluate deliverables, and so forth. This ad-hoc coordination is typically done outside of the system using generic communication tools like email or phone. Such ad-hoc actions are neither trackable nor directly supported within the context of the business application.